CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 1. Knowing Your Motherboard

Exam Objectives

• Distinguishing motherboard components

• Recognizing types of motherboards

• Identifying bus architectures

One of the major replaceable components in your computer is the system board, also known as the motherboard. The motherboard is the big green board (that might not be a technical description, but I think that looking inside your system will demonstrate that it is an accurate one) connected to the computer case. It is the motherboard that holds your RAM, processor, and a number of other components in place.

Think of the motherboard as the glue that connects all the other PC components. For example, you can see how the hard drive is connected to the motherboard by following the IDE ribbon cable from your hard drive to the motherboard. If you do the same with the IDE cable that connects to the floppy drive, you can see that the floppy drive also connects to the motherboard. The memory sockets and the processor socket are likewise located on the motherboard.

In short, all the components that work together (to make the computer functional) connect to the motherboard. If you take a close look at the motherboard, you can see wires embedded on the board that form little pathways that span the system. Think of these wires as the highway system that data signals use to travel from one location to another.

In this chapter, I introduce you to the different types of components found on the motherboard. After identifying the motherboard components, ...